Author: Michael Witthaus

Old House & Barn Expo returns

The Old House & Barn Expo at Saint Anselm College on March 14 and March 15 might at first glance seem like any trade show. There are more than 50 exhibitors, selling everything from wall stencils and paint to rugs and cabinets. Services for homeowners to help bring historic buildings into the modern age while preserving their history are also on offer.

Upon closer inspection, though, it’s much, much more. There are hands-on activities such as plaster repair, and one-on-one sessions with house doctors. An 18- by 18-foot timber frame structure will be built during the event, with ongoing hourly talks about its repair, assembly and disassembly.

There are lectures, 25 in all, held in the nearby Dana Center, that include topics both practical and inspirational, like “Mural Talk: When Walls Take Us Back in Time,” given by Lisa Curry of Canvasworks Design. More pragmatic is Justin Paynter of ReVision Energy talking about integrating solar power and heat pumps into old homes.

The biennial show is the creation of the New Hampshire Preservation Alliance, a 41-year-old nonprofit that is focused on the rescue and revival of important landmarks, and supporting old home and barn enthusiasts in similar efforts. The show, they believe, is the largest of its kind in New England. It was launched 20 years ago; this is the eleventh expo.

“The Preservation Alliance loves this opportunity to get people together,” the organization’s president, Jennifer Goodman, who also helped launch the expo, said by phone recently. “We’re excited that there are a lot of new topics, exhibitors and presenters, in addition to longtime favorites.”

Other hour-long sessions focus on building a modern kitchen into an old house, understanding character-defining features of a dwelling before starting work, and sustainability in historic preservation. A session called “House Histories” is a guide to researching the evolution of an old structure.

There are two panel discussions on the final day, “Celebrating Semiquincentennial Farms: Stewardship and Legacy,” led by former New Hampshire Agriculture, Markets & Food Commissioner Steve Taylor, and “Details Make the Difference,” with a panel that includes a representative from the League of NH Craftsmen.

Speaking of details, there’s a session on architectural millwork led by specialist Brett Hull. “It helps you date a house … so people understand the history,” Goodman said. “What the evolution over time looked like, the different eras and architectural styles, how it was made and used.”

The expo is a multi-generational event.

“It attracts young people looking for their first house as well as older people who might want to find solutions for aging in place,” she said. They’ll find answers to questions about energy efficiency, how to lower operating costs, even paint color and garden design.

There will be experts available to help people figure out how to program new uses into old spaces, build an addition to an older property, or how to use new technology to help with old house care — though old tech isn’t left out. An “Artistry in Iron” session focuses on the history and reuse of antique stoves.

The expo happens every other year and alternates with the Alliance’s statewide historic preservation conference, Goodman said. “That’s more geared toward community leaders who are saving old farms and reviving their local meeting house or trying to find a new use for an old church.”

Goodman has been with the organization for more than two decades. When asked what drew her to it, she replied, “I love the people and places involved in the preservation movement, so it’s been exciting and fulfilling to get to work with people and work on projects that are really special to the character and economy of the state.”

The work is vital, she continued: “I really believe in historic preservation as a tool to save and revive beautiful homes, beautiful barns, beautiful places and communities around the state. I really believe in how the tool is a really important factor in resource conservation and keeping communities vital economically.”

Old House & Barn Expo
When: Saturday, March 14, 9:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. and Sunday, March 15, 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
Where: Sullivan Ice Arena, 100 Saint Anselm Drive, Saint Anselm College, Manchester
Tickets: Weekend pass $20 ($12 for students, seniors and veterans); day pass $12 ($7 for students, seniors and veterans)

Featured photo: NH House & Barn Expo. Credit Steve Booth.

‘Bloom’ pairs art and floral arrangements

A four-day event at Manchester’s Currier Museum of Art pairs paintings and sculptures with floral arrangements done by members of the New Hampshire Federation of Garden Clubs. “Bloom – A Floral Palette” also offers hands-on artmaking and tours led by floral designers. It culminates with a catered party and awards ceremony.

“Bloom” is something that NHFGC has long wanted to do, Winnie Schmidt, the organization’s President, noted recently.

“Many of us have attended this type of an event in places like the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, and right now there’s one going on in Worcester, Mass., at their art gallery,” she said in a phone interview. “We’ve seen them all over, and for years we’ve wanted to bring it here.”

Arrangers include winners of past events like the Philadelphia Art Show and the Rhode Island Flower Show, along with some who are in the milieu for the first time but just as passionate. “These are ladies who absolutely love to do floral design,” Schmidt said. “From Salem up to Littleton and Ashland.”

Floral designers are tasked with addressing the question of how art and arrangements work together, Schmidt continued. They should, she said, “complement, harmonize, showcase or unite with a piece of art or in the theme [and] demonstrate creativity, originality, use of bold color choices, textures and unexpected materials.”

Museums are a brave new world for NHFGC, which is part of a national group of garden clubs. “Most of us are digging-in-the-dirt garden clubs, but a good number of us are also interested in floral design,” she said. “It’s a mixture of both outdoor gardeners and floral designers, so it’s a very eclectic group.”

Floral designers picked works from the Currier collection on a first-come basis, a process that worked well, Schmidt said. “You have to remember this, we’re inventing this as it goes — none of us have done this before. So our mantra is, ‘We don’t know what we’re doing, but we’re having a good time doing it.’”

Attendees at the Bloom Bash on the evening of Saturday, March 14, are encouraged to dress in their favorite floral fashions in an early celebration of spring. The event will offer light hors d’oeuvres and a cash bar, capped by an awards ceremony in the Currier’s Winter Garden to celebrate the designers.

Currier Director and CEO Jordana Pomeroy will choose the arrangement that she feels best represents the intersection of design and art. A Committee Award will be chosen by Currier Board of Trustees member Bill Stelling; Sally Shea, who organized a similar effort called “Petals to Paint” for many years, and a dozen NHFGC presidents, including Schmidt.

Finally, there’s a People’s Choice Award.

“Everyone who attends will be able to vote for the arrangement that they feel best exemplifies the show,” Schmidt said. “All those things will be given out at the Bloom Bash on Saturday night, so it’ll be like a culmination — ‘We did it, let’s celebrate and party and have a good time.’”

That said, it will be a party that’s more about marking an achievement for everyone involved, rather than to pick winners.

“It’s not a floral design contest,” Schmidt said. “The National Garden Club has a handbook on floral design arrangement that is probably 1,000 pages thick. This is not what this is.”

More than anything, the hope is that the long weekend of commingling flowers and arts inspires another one, and another after that, she stressed.

“It’s our inaugural one, but the one that we were at in Connecticut last weekend was celebrating their 44th, and I hope someday we will be celebrating our 44th annual here in Manchester.”

Bloom – A Floral Palette
When: Thursday, March 12, through Sunday, March 15
Where: Currier Museum of Art, 150 Ash St., Manchester
Tickets: Weekend pass $50 adults, $20 members (does not include Bloom Bash on Saturday, March 14, 6 p.m., $50)

Daily admission $30 adults, $15 members, includes museum access, arrangement viewing, artmaking and tours.

Featured photo: “Cross By the Sea, Canada” by Georgia O’Keeffe one of the pieces floral designers will take inspiration from for “Bloom.” Images courtesy the Currier.